"There is no greatness where simplicity, goodness and truth
are absent."
Leo Tolstoy

Monday, August 07, 2017

Absolutely

Anyway you look at it, Michael Harris writes, Donald Trump is a fascist. You can't pussyfoot your way around that conclusion:

I use the word fascist advisedly. If we are to square up to the facts,
what other way is there to describe Trump? Mussolini, whom Trump
unabashedly quoted during the presidential election campaign, said that
“fascism should rightly be called corporatism, as it is the merger of
corporate and government power.”

Could there be a better description of the Trump cabinet than that? A
collection of billionaires representing the corporate elite in the
United States, who now also control the levers of political power –
often without relinquishing their business conflicts?

Trump refuses to recognize the independence of the other branches of the American government:

Someone has apparently forgotten to tell the president that under the
system of checks and balances in U.S. governance, the Senate is
“co-equal” with the executive branch. But then fascists don’t lose much
sleep violating the constitution.

Nor did Trump hesitate to violate the independence of the Department
of Justice. The president lambasted his own attorney general for not
undertaking criminal investigations into government leaks and the
alleged crimes of Hillary Clinton. It is not the president’s job to
direct criminal prosecutions.

And it is certainly not Trump’s job to tell Special Counsel Robert
Mueller what he may or may not investigate when it comes to the Trump
campaign/Russia connection. There is an old saying in law: you can’t be
judge in your own cause, something fascists specialize in.

Trump's ignorance of the American Constitution -- which he is supposed to "protect and defend" -- is appalling. But his drive for absolute control makes him truly dangerous. And those who have enabled him, bear as much responsibility for the tragedy which has befallen the United States as he does:

Remember what Rick Perry said when he was running against Donald Trump for the Republican Party presidential nomination?

“Donald Trump’s candidacy is a cancer on conservatism, and it must be clearly diagnosed, excised and discarded.”

A year and a half later, Perry accepted the job as Trump’s energy secretary. Power corrupts.

5 comments:

Like all fascist movements, Trump needs a "them," an enemy against which he can rally his loyal followers. Salon's Amanda Marcotte that Trump's White House is using white supremacy to energize his base.

"A lot happened during the unofficial White Supremacy Week at the White House, so it’s a bit hard to keep up. The festivities kicked off last Friday, July 28, when Trump went to Long Island to give a speech to assembled police officers in which he painted immigrants as criminals and recommended police brutality, to great applause. On Tuesday of last week, the Justice Department announced it would focus resources on fighting discrimination against white people in college admissions, shoring up the racist myth that undeserving people of color are “stealing” opportunities from more deserving whites. On Wednesday, the White House rolled out, with great fanfare, a proposal to cut legal immigration in half, which was clearly meant to prioritize white and/or English-speaking immigrants over others."

"White Supremacy Week was almost certainly an effort from Team Trump to re-ingratiate Orange Mussolini to his base. Promising to kick non-white people in the teeth is about reminding the most hardcore troglodytes why they loved Trump in the first place. The administration is clearly hoping that their base voters will overlook a whole lot of stupidity, corruption and damage as long as the racist hits keep on coming."

Trump is a layer cake Fascist he only likes the icing. He has no true commitment to anything except Donald. He is not an evil person IMHO. I preface that by saying I do not believe in evil. People do and do not do, there is no force its personal choice.

Hillary was evil, Trump is just a fascist clown. It was a good outcome for the human race for him to be electrocuted. Once in a while its good for the holi poli to have some cognitive dissonance on a grand scale. Everyone has feet of clay and all Emperors have no clothes.

About Me

A retired English teacher, I now write about public policy and, occasionally, personal experience. I leave it to the reader to determine if I practice what I preached to my students for thirty-two years.